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Google assigned Haiku five student slots for the Google Summer of Code 2008, so we had to narrow down our final choice from the many high quality student applications. This was tough: many good applications had to be left out, and we really hate leaving people out, particularly those who had shown an interest in Haiku. So we started entertaining the idea of sponsoring a few of these students ourselves. Today we introduce you to the Haiku Code Drive 2008, a program designed to raise funds from the community in order to sponsor students to produce code for Haiku. This is how it's going to work.

We contacted all the GSoC students that applied for Haiku but did not make it, and asked them if they were interested in carrying out their proposed project for a $2,500 stipend each. From their response, we have created this list of students and their projects; these are the candidates for the Haiku Code Drive 2008 program. Now we are asking you, the Haiku community, to fund the program by making donations. We will then hold a public poll so that the community can influence which candidates/projects they want to sponsor. At the end of the poll/donation period, we will determine how many and which of the students will be sponsored based on the donated funds and the results of the poll. Check out all the details of the program here, including a timeline with tentative dates.

We are very pleased to announce that, for the second straight year, Haiku has been accepted as a mentor organization for the Google Summer of Code. The student application period will start soon, so if you are a student who would like to work on a Haiku project for the GSoC 2008, please check out our List of GSoC Ideas and Students: How to Apply pages for detailed information on how to apply. If you still have any questions specific to GSoC after reading these pages, please contact the Haiku GSoC administrator (Bruno Albuquerque). If you have any general questions about Haiku and want to start familiarizing yourself with our community, which we encourage you to, please join the Haiku development mailing list and also feel free to stop by the #haiku IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. Our friendly community members will be glad to help you out in pursuing a Haiku project for the GSoC 2008 and beyond.

The good news following our recent presence at the SCaLE conference and the great exposure that it resulted in continues to pour in. Haiku has now been invited to have a booth at the LugRadio Live USA 2008, the first LugRadio live event to be held in the US. Needless to say, we could not refuse the irresistible offer. The event will take place in San Francisco on the weekend of April 12 and 13, at the The Metreon entertainment center located at the heart of the city (map).

LugRadio is an event that covers a range of topics about free software, Open Source, digital rights, technology and more. Combined with a compelling list of speakers, exhibitors and birds of a feather sessions, this event is said to offer what feels like a combination of a rock concert and a computer conference. To bring this unique atmosphere to San Francisco, LugRadio Live USA 2008 USA will have around 30 speakers including Miguel de Icaza and Ian Murdock, over 20 exhibitors, an eclectic range of BOF and other sessions, and the live recording of LugRadio in front of an audience.

It has been several months since we announced the departure of project founder Michael Phipps from Haiku and the transition period that ensued for Haiku Inc. This is an attempt to give the community a most probably long awaited update on where we stand today, what has been done so far and what remains to be done to bring the Haiku Inc. transition to a successful conclusion.

Who we are

First, let's try to put a face to the transition team, so that you know who is behind all this. Under the initiative of Stephan (Stippi) Aßmus, a "transition team" was setup with the main goal of reorganizing Haiku Inc.. To that end, an interim board of directors (BOD) endorsed by the Haiku admins is being put in place; this BOD is only transitional and will eventually be replaced by one elected with votes from a broader representation base. The interim BOD has not been formally sworn in yet, but it is scheduled to include the following individuals:

Farewell video: YouTube | Download Project founder, long time leader and Haiku visionary Michael Phipps departed from the project last year. Michael's list of achievements is long: he did not just provide an overall vision for Haiku, but he also set up Haiku Inc., and over the years put in countless hours of work, keeping the development effort on track whenever it seemed to drift away from the goals, and single-handedly managing the infrastructure supporting the project. Without Michael, Haiku would most probably not be what it has become today.

Michael gave his goodbye in a moving letter to the Haiku community but, somehow, it feels as if we never reciprocated with a proper farewell. So we decided to do something special to show our heartfelt appreciation. We are thereby presenting Michael Phipps with the first ever Haiku Recognition Award. This is a very special award with a personal touch, as it has been signed by members of the community present at the recent BeGeistert 018 conference held in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is also accompanied by a farewell video.

SCaLE 5x, Haiku Tech Talks at Google, Picn*x XVI, CNSL 3 in Venezuela, FISL 8.0 in Brazil, NUMERICA in France, T-DOSE in the Netherlands, Kansai Open Source Forum in Japan. The list of 2007 events where Haiku had a presence is very long. In fact, never in the past has Haiku had so much public exposure as it did during 2007. And as the project keeps making progress towards its first release, this trend of increased exposure before the eyes of the open source and computing world in general is expected — and desired — to continue. In the first two months of 2008 alone, Haiku will be at BeGeistert 018, SCaLE 6x and FOSDEM 2008, not to mention the Haiku hacking event that is taking place this very same week. With very few exceptions, these events are all the result of initiatives by one or more community members.

In an attempt to assist the effort of these community members who drive such initiatives and to lure more of them to follow suit, we have added to the Haiku website the ability to easily publish information about conferences and events, as a means to increase their exposure and as a tool to further engage the participation of the community in this events.

Many Haiku fans have been eagerly waiting for the next BeGeistert, and the official word is out now: BeGeistert 018 -- Phoenix is coming back to Düsseldorf, where it will be held on January 12 and 13, 2008. But the good news does not end here: as a prelude to BeGeistert, a coding asylum event with the expected presence of many Haiku core developers has been organized on the same week and at the sample place.